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Story URL: http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39145069,00.htm

ID Cards on Trial: Pensioners and priests to resist bill
'Middle England' pledges to risk jail by refusing to enrol for ID cards...

By Andy McCue

Published: Monday 04 July 2005

Pensioners, priests and doctors are among thousands of people who have signed a pledge to resist the introduction of ID cards in the UK despite the threat of heavy fines and imprisonment.

The government narrowly won the ID card vote last week and the controversial bill is due to enter its committee stage this week before Parliament's summer recess.

But opponents of the ID card scheme are warning that a nationwide network of activists will make the enrolment process unworkable by refusing to carry a card or obstructing the registration process.

Almost 8,000 people have so far signed up to a pledge to defy the ID card scheme and to donate £10 each to a fighting fund that will be used for the legal costs of defending any refuseniks taken to court. Many lawyers have also signed up offering to work pro bono in support of the cause.

The names of those that have signed the pledge are also evidence of the widespread and growing backlash against the ID card scheme with 'middle England' strongly represented by a host of pensioners, reverends, doctors, councillors and MPs.

Phil Booth, national co-ordinator of the No2ID opposition group behind the pledge, told silicon.com the cost issue has sparked wider concerns among the general public about the whole ID cards bill.

"It's been one of those issues people haven't noticed coming but now that cost has alerted many people what we're seeing is a backlash against the unwarranted intrusion into people's private lives," he said.

He said pensioners' groups are concerned about the cost of the cards for older people and the potential difficulties in registering a biometric iris scan because of medical conditions such as cataracts.

"Pensioner groups are very active. When they get the bit between their teeth they are a phenomenal force to be reckoned with," he said.

Booth admitted that some people will be unwilling or unable, because of their job or position in society, to risk a £2,500 fine or jail sentence by refusing to enrol for a card but he said there are many other ways that ordinary citizens can legally obstruct the process.

"Even being mildly obstructive in that enrolment queue and taking an hour instead of 15 minutes will make this whole process absolutely unworkable," he said.